The Curious De-Emphais on Confession

Things can be very frustrating these days for frequent sinners such as myself. There has been a disturbing de-emphasis on confession in church parishes, at least the ones I have been to. Most parishes and churches I know have only 45 minutes a week for confessions, on Saturdays . 45 minutes a week!!?? Are they kidding me? There is the downtown shrine in my hometown that has confessions several hours a day, but that is during work hours and it would take up my whole lunch time just to find parking. I need a lot more time than this what with my busy schedule and all. Saturday is a particularly busy day for me. I do make it, but I shouldn’t have to go through hoops to get to confession, at least the church shouldn’t put the hoops there!

A puzzling question
.
Why is this? Was it Vatican II? Can’t be. The Vatican II documents do not talk about confession much but it did not really need to. Anything one needs to know about confession is in other councils and documents and was not abrogated. So what is it? A perceived change brought about by Vatican II? Perhaps. There have been changes in outlook in the Church since that council. But , so far, I have not seen any of these changes in the Vatican II documents themselves. (Of course I may be eating crow in the coming months) If indeed Vatican II did not abrogate the need for confession then this de-emphasis on the need for confession is indeed puzzling!

The Catechism?

Perhaps the Catechism? This is what it actually says;
"Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the spirit."(1)
So while the catechism says it is not strictly necessary, it does encourage its frequent use. There is certainly no indication that confession time should be severely limited.


Getting the word out


It may be that the reason there is not much confession time is that not many go to begin with. Come to think of it, this makes sense. Even with the limited time for confession not many go, maybe two or three people. Why is this? Perhaps it is because the need for confession is not emphasized in the churches.
This reminds me of something I saw on EWTN a couple of years ago. On this program a priest related a story of a priest in this certain parish who noticed that not many people were going to confession. He started preaching the need to go to confession and soon the lines were out the door! It seems that if confession were to be emphasized more then people may be stimulated to pay more attention to their spiritual health.


Relationship with Christ


The Christian journey is a relationship with Christ, not merely living by a set of morals. Alfred A. Hubenig, O.M.I., had this to say about St. Eugene De Mazenod;
"And to the Galatians he says, ‘ from my mother’s womb he called me by his grace to reveal his son in me so that I might preach the good news about him to the gentiles.’ (Galatians 1:15) Note Paul says ‘God chose to reveal his son in me,’ not ‘to me’ This means that the grace received by Paul, like the grace received by Eugene, is not mere intellectual knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is a spiritual gift that reaches the very depths of the heart, bringing about an unshakable conviction and a strong attachment to the person of Jesus."(2)


No complacency


So we can’t be complacent concerning venial sin. A lackadaisical attitude towards it could lead to a weakening of our relationship with Christ. I look at venial sin like a tick on a dog. One tick may sting and suck out a little blood. If it is extracted there is no harm done. But if it is left to fester it will suck out more blood and weaken the dog more. More and more ticks will weaken the dog further and seriously compromise its health. Then, when a major illness comes along it will be too weak to fight it off. So it is with venial sin. If we ignore them and don’t deal with them they may accumulate and weaken our souls to the point that our attachment with Christ is compromised and our resistence to mortal sins will be greatly weakened. This dog knows something about this.


Conclusion



So, in my humble opinion, the churches should emphasize confession more. It doesn’t even have to be fire and brimstone, at least not yet. All they need to do is to emphasize that venial sins need to be dealt with in order to improve the spiritual lives of the faithful and to strengthen them from temptations to mortal sins. This is not so the people will obsess about venial sins, but so that they won’t obsess over them but instead form a deeper relationship with Christ.
If confession is emphasized more then it could very well be that more people will take a greater interest in caring for their souls and from there develop a greater interest in the teachings of the Church.




1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pauline Books and Media, 1994. P. 366
2. Hubenig, Alfred A., O.M.I., Living in the Spirit’s Fire, Novalis, Ottawa, Ontario Canada, 1995, P. 32.


Note
I am sorry I haven’t posted anything in almost a month. I have been a little busy and also I have been studying about things I am not sure of. I have been pursuing a study of certain things that I don’t wish to bring out at the present time. I need to be sure of things. I hope to be posting some more things in the future.
Frank.

Plunging In

"Lord God, help us who have dipped a foot into the waters of life to plunge in over our heads, dead to the old ways and fully alive to the new, for the sake of Jesus, who gave his life for those He loved. Amen."



It is amazing how sometimes a phrase or two from a simple prayer can have depth of meaning and can impact one like a sudden gust of wind in the face. Such a thing happened to me last week at the monthly meeting of the Oblate associates of Mary Immaculate. The above prayer was one of the ones used in the prayer service. I was struck by the opening line. How many times , especially recently, have I merely dipped a foot into the waters of life as opposed to plunging in head first, fully immersed in the Christian life.

Too much dipping

I have been guilty of just wading in lately, distracted by holiday activities, house cleaning, various events, undefeated football seasons, etc. There is nothing wrong with all this and most of these activities are necessary. There is no sin in these per se.
But it must be remembered that the Christian life is about our relationship with God, not merely following rules and moral precepts. It says in scripture;
" Therefore , as you have received Jesus Christ our Lord, so walk in Him; be rooted in Him and built up on him, and strengthened in the faith, as you also have learnt, rendering thanks abundantly."(Colossians, 2: 6-7)
Thomas Merton writes;
"But morality is not an end in itself. Virtue, for a Christian, is not its own reward. God is our reward. The moral life leads to something beyond itself-to the experience of union with God, and to our transformation in Him."(1)

Need for constant growth

I have learned lately that halfway measures won’t do. It may be possible to go through the motions for awhile, not committing outward sin. But if I let life distract me from feeding my soul, by contemplation, communing with God, growing in knowledge then eventually, because I haven’t built up enough of a relationship with God to dread cutting myself of His grace, I will fall. If I don’t do what is necessary to continually be transformed in Him, I will regress.

Can't neglect God

Thus, in order to grow in His likeness, we must plunge in His waters. Dipping our foot is not enough. Our earthly relationships won’t work by neglecting to spend time with our loved ones, it is the same with God. We do have to do our duties and live our vocations, but in doing so we can not forget our lives belong to Him. We can’t let anything distract us to the point where we forget to strengthen and deepen our relationship with God and plunge in the waters of His grace.

1. Thomas Merton, The Thomas Merton Reader, Image Books, Doubleday, Ny. Ny., 1974, p.375